


Herding Cats

by QSF



Series: Wanderers [2]
Category: Kamen Rider Decade
Genre: Fluff, Gift Fic, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 20:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QSF/pseuds/QSF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unapologetic Yuusuke-centric fluffy piece about his life at the Hikari photo studio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Herding Cats

**Author's Note:**

> Birtday fic for mercy-misrule on tumblr.

Sometimes Yuusuke wondered if he should have taken up a less strenuous job, like herding cats.

He had always felt like he was playing catch-up back when he was pursuing Yashiro. The detective had been calm and poised, and with a stern beauty to her that had made him literally wonder if it would have been worth it to get arrested just to get to ride in the car with her. Instead he had ended up becoming Kuuga, and while he had never been properly arrested he got to ride in the car with her anyway.

He hadn't made her smile though. He had kept trying, but it wasn't until the end, when the world was ending and everything was too late, that she had allowed herself to soften. And then she died.

Running away had never felt better.

Running into Yashiro again, another woman on another world, had opened all the wounds again, but it had also healed them. Because this Yashiro got to smile. This Yashiro got a happy ending with the man that she loved.

Which wasn't him.

But it was fine anyway.

He had cried for an hour after they left that world, and it was the first time that Kaito had hugged him. A quick, awkward thing which ended with the thief storming out of the room pretending that it had never happened the day after.

But the scars were healing. Growing paler. There were other people moving into his heart. Tsukasa, who had smashed down the door from the start, never caring what Yuusuke thought of the arrangement. Natsumi, who moved in more cautiously, friendship blossoming into love before either of them realized what was going on because they were supposed to be rivals for Tsukasa's fickle affection, right?

And then there was Kaitou.

Maybe none of them would have worked as a normal couple. Tsukasa would have annoyed any single person enough for a dozen bad breakups within a year. Natsumi would have been bored and moved on. Kaitou would have run for it, because being a couple was too much like being trapped. And Yuusuke... honestly, he wasn't sure how he could have. Any relationship would have been compared to what he had imagined with Yashiro, and you could never win against the dead.

It worked because they were four. It worked because they were unorthodox about things. It worked because they could go off on their own, because they could have romantic one on one dates and then end up four people sweaty on the bed covered in bruises. Most of which were from one fight or another. It worked because it was not perfect. It worked because they needed each other, but neither of them was really ready for being someone's whole world. A part of one was fine. Even Kaitou could manage that as long as you didn't call attention to it. He could be supportive. Just like Tsukasa could be kind. Or Natsumi could be tender.

Sometimes.

And sometimes it was like herding cats. And sometimes it made him feel like he was the glue. That it was all on him. Tsukasa might have been the planet they all orbited, but Yuusuke felt like he was the gravity that kept them there. That fixed things. That had to make the tough calls. And he wasn't ready for that.

That was when the nightmares came. Of all the times he failed.

Of watching Yashiro lie dying in a hospital bed.  
Of helplessly drowning in darkness, watching himself beat Tsukasa within an inch of his life.  
Of watching Wataru and Asumu fade into nothingness because he had inspired them to fight on Tsukasa's side.  
Of chasing Tsukasa through the worlds to kill him, praying that he would catch up, fearing that he would.  
Of that moment in the air with Tsukasa in his claws, knowing with perfect clarity that the only way to end this was to kill them both because he couldn't stand living with what either of them had done.

"Yuusuke."

But they had. Both of them. Lived. They were all alive. Right now.

"Yuusuke!"

He was not alone. He knew that.

"Yuusuke, wake up you idiot, you're crying." Kaitou's voice. Annoyed.

Was he dreaming? Or just waking up from one nightmare to another? The arms around him were warm. The air smelled faintly of coffee.

"Daiki?" Yuusuke ran the back of his hand over his eyes, wiping away the worst of the wet.

"Be quiet you two," Tsukasa mumbled, disturbed by the sudden movement. He rolled over, stealing most of Natsumi's blanket in the process. She mumbled tiredly in protest, until Kaitou leaned over Yuusuke to pull the blanket back, leaving Tsukasa mostly uncovered.

It was ironic. They might start out with enough covers at the start of the night, but in the end they always kept struggling for a single blanket, the rest kicked down into jumble at the foot of the tatami mats.

None of them tended to sleep quietly.

"I suppose certain people are too cool for nightmares," Kaitou said, as always the first one awake (and sometimes out the door before the others even stirred).

"Damn right I am," Tsukasa grumbled, sitting up with a yawn, stretching his lanky body.

Nobody bothered to point out that sometimes it took all three of them to calm him down after one of his episodes. Yuusuke had wanted to ask what it was that haunted the tall rider so many times, but knowing how long that list could be made him hesitant to. They had all been through the Rider War together, but Tsukasa had been running Dai Shocker for years. That had to leave scars of a different sort.

"Is that grampa making coffee?" Natsumi shared some of her blanket with Yuusuke, curling up at his side, her sleepy mumble tickling his neck.

"Better be," Tsukasa said with a yawn. "Unless the studio decided to move again and dumped us somewhere people would barge in to make coffee unannounced."

"To be fair, that's been known to happen." Yuusuke was starting to relax again, trapped between Natsumi's warm, sleepy body, and Kaitou's tense and wiry one. It was a common enough feeling, like sitting next to a fire. One side too warm, the other too cold, but it was in the contrast that he really felt alive. In the way that Kaitou kept touching him, fingers playing over his chest and stomach to keep themselves busy.

"Well, this time Kaitou is right here, so I suppose he's... innocentish..." Tsukasa drawled as he got to his feet, gloriously nude and not caring the slightest that people watched.

"Oh I forgot you tend to not be around when he shows up," Yuusuke said with the smallest of smiles. "Godai makes coffee sometimes when he drops by if we're not up yet."

Tsukasa huffed audibly, stepping over the three to look for the pants that had been hastily discarded the night before.

"Oh stop sulking, Tsukasa," Natsumi mumbled and raised herself up on one elbow so she could glare sleepily at the man. "He's Yuusuke's family; he's earned the right to make himself at home here."

"I don't remember agreeing to that. He tried to kill me, you know." Tsukasa glared at the three tangled on the bed.

"Unlike the rest of us," Kaitou said with a dry laugh, though the other two flinched because it was far too true. "You're just sore he beat you in a fair fight."

"And you were running Dai Shocker at the time," Yuusuke pointed out. "And you were trying to invade his world."

"Besides, if he hadn't kicked some sense into you, we never would have met." Natsumi's smile was soft, but a moment later distorted by another yawn.

"I nearly died! You're all lucky all I lost was my memory and the decadriver." Tsukasa grimaced and touched his head, the unruly hair covering the scars underneath.

"We are lucky." Yuusuke said with the widest smile he could muster.

Because they were. He'd seen the damage that Godai's kicks could do, and for the Decade armour to hold up against that well enough to save Tsukasa's life... he was grateful to whatever Dai Shocker scientists that had created it.

It could have gone so wrong.

As it was, it still had been a harsh road. Filled with pain and sacrifice leaving scars that would never truly heal. But mixed in with all the loss and grief there had been this. The seeds of his dysfunctional family.

The cynical ex-cop turned traitor and thief who pushed you away with one hand, and pulled you close with the other.

The stubborn granddaughter of an evil scientist who could smile softly one moment and then do the terrible things that needed doing the next.

The former leader of Dai Shocker who thought the worlds revolved around him, and yet his own world revolved around his loved ones.

And then there was the older brother he had never had, a different Yuusuke from a different world, both shouldering similar burdens.

And there were more, so many they had met in their travels. Godai's lover Ichijou, a male echo of Yashiro that made him both happy and sad. Godai's sister Minori, who was still alive and shared the same gentle smile as his own memories. Little Wataru, growing up to be king, but whom he still saw as his little brother. So many of them. Family. Family of family. And that wasn't even counting friends.

"Tsukasa?" Yuusuke called out, causing the tall rider to pause the struggle with his pants. "Come back to bed."

Because it was true. They really were lucky, all of them.

And the coffee could wait. No matter who was preparing it.


End file.
